Apparatus for handling strands



May 21, 1940? w. c. l-:WALDsoN Er A1. 2,201,288

APPARATUS 'FOR HANDLING STRANDS Filed Sept. 3, 1938 /NVE/VTRS WCC. EWLDSIV H. PES5 RNs-AM ATTORNEY ill Patented May 21, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR HANDLING STRANDS Application September 3, 1938, Serial No. 228,353

r2 Claims. (Cl. '7d- 340) This invention relates to apparatus for handling strands and more particularly to apparatus for treating electrical conductor strands sheathed with textile material with a solution of cellulose acetate or the like in a solvent such as acetone or the like.

Textile covered wire has been treated in the past with many diierent liquid substances to coat or impregnate or to impregnate and coat the textile sheathing with various substances either in molten condition or dissolved in a volatile solvent. It is especially desirable in some cases to impregnato and coat the textile covered wire with cellulose acetate dissolved in acetone to improve both the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the insulating coating.

An object of the present invention is to provide in such apparatus handling means 'for strands under treatment to guide them in and about the apparatus without imposing any avoidable pressures or stresses upon the partly or Wholly formed coatings. i

One embodiment of the invention may present in an apparatus for treating strands a device for guiding strands comprising a shaft, a sleeve r0- tatable on the shaft, an anti-friction bearing interposed between the sleeve and the shaft, a plurality of peripherally grooved strand guide sheaves mounted on the sleeve to be independently rotatable thereon, and a friction bearing interposed between each sheave and the sleeve.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures, and in which Fig. 1 is a View in front elevation of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention and having parts of the housing broken away to show the interior mechanism; and

Fig, 2 is a detached enlarged View partly in central longitudinal section of one of the multiple guide sheaves.

The apparatus ,herein disclosed as an embodiment of the invention is constructed with particular reference to the coating of textile covered wirewith a solution of cellulose acetate in acetone. The apparatus comprises a vertically extended housing 22 conveniently of rectangular cross section and mounted upon any convenient and suitable base member 2l to Abe elevated somewhat above the iioor, A supply reel diagrammatically illustrated at 22 contains a supply of strand 23 to be coated and a take-up reel 24 similarly located is used to take up the` coated strand emerging fromthe apparatus. The reels l 22 and 24 may be mounted and the reel 24 driven in any suitable and appropriate manner.

Such mounting and driving means are well known in the various arts that deal with the treating and handling of strands and it is not believed necessary for the understanding of this invention to describe or show them in detail here.

rl'he strand 23 passes from the reel 22 up along the outside of the housing 2li and over a guide sheave 25 also outside of the housing, and thence it passes through an appropriate small aperture in the housing (not shown) behind the sheave 25 and over another guide sheave 26 within the housing. Thence the strand passes over and once or more around a. capstan 2l, from which it passes down and under a pair of multiply grooved sheaves 29 located below the surface of the coating material contained in the bottom portion of the housing which is formed as a tank to hold a suitable supply of the liquid coating material. From the second guide sheave or roller 29 the strand 23 passes upward between the iirst` of a gang of convex wiper die rollers 42 and the corresponding one of a gang of matched concave wiper die rollers 43, Thence the strand passes on to and around capstan 21 and thence to and over one of the sheaves 34 of a multiple sheave 35. From the sheave 35 the strand passes in succession over a number of similar multiple sheaves 36, 3l, 38, 39 and 4l! and back to the capstan around which it passes. Thence the strand passes down and again under the submerging guide sheaves 29 in the liquid supply tank and thence upwardly between the second pair of wiper die rollers 3l and 32. The strand then passes over and around the capstan,` over the second sheave of the multiple sheave 35, and thence again over the guide sheaves 36, 3l', 38 and 40 and to the capstan. It is carried again down into the bath, through the wiper dies, around the capstan, and through the tortuous drying path as many times as found to be necessary to produce the desired thickness of coating material on the strand, When this object is attained the strand passes from the capstan over the last sheave of the multiple sheave 39 to a guide sheave 46 and out through a suitable aperture in the housing to an external guide sheave 4l from which it passes down outside of the housing to be wound up on the take-up reel 24.

The structure and operation of the capstan 21 and of the wiper dies 3l, 32, 42 and 43 are no part of the present invention but are described in deauf -may be taken as typical,

tail and claimed in copending applications Serial Nos, 228,352 and 228,354, filed by the same inventors on the same date as this application and upon the latter of which Patent No. 2,172,837 was granted September 12, 1939.

The particular subject of the present invention is the construction and mode of operation of the multiple guide sheaves 35, 35, 31, 33, 39 and fi which are identically similar and of which the one indicated at 35 and shown in detail in Fig. 3 This comprises a stub shaft SD rigidly and preferably removably supported in any suitable fashion preferably in the rear wall of the housing 20. On this shaft is a coaxial sleeve 9| mounted by means of anti-friction bearings 92 to be freely rotatable on the shaft. A plurality of coaxially aligned mutually completely independent grooved sheaves 34 is mounted on the outer surface .of the sleeve 9i to be .rotatable ythereon entirely independently of each other. lFor many purposes, particularly in the present instance, it may be preferable to have the sheaves Sil mounted on the sleeve 9| by plain bearings, for example by means of ordinary friction bearing rings 93, although if desired, antifriction bearings may also be interposed between the sheaves and the sleeve. When the shaft 9U is removable it forms with its sheaves and. bearings a unitary structure removable as a whole for cleaning.

In many strand handling processes, especially such as the particular one herein described in detail, where a strand makes a number of successive passes through some operation and over some strand advancing means such as the capstan 21, there may be a slight drawing or elongation of the strand dueto the pulling stress of the capstan against whatever resistance may be involved in the 'remainder of the apparatus, thus increasing the length of the strand slightly as it advances. Hence, there will necessarily be some difference in longitudinal speed of the strand, increasing with each successive pass of the strand. Therefore, if any one pass is travelling over a simple multiple grooved roller, the other passes must necessarily slip on the roller. This frictional resistance to the advancement of the strand not only adds to the power required to operate the apparatus but also may act effectively to increase the drawing effect upon the strand.

In the multiple sheave of the present invention the principal part of the longitudinal motion of the several passes of the strand over the sheave is taken care of by the rotation of the sleeve 9| rtogether with the sheaves 34 on `the anti-friction bearings S2, while the differential motion of the several passes with respect to'each other is permitted to take place Without sliding of any pass in the groove of its sheave by differential creeping of the several mutually entirely independent sheaves to compensate on the sleeve 9i. Thus, aside from whatever resistance to the advancement of the strand is offered in the Wiper die and in whatever braking or tensioning mechanism may be associated with the supply reel 22, there will be. no effective resistance anywhere to the advancement of the strand. Hence, lthe drawing effect caused by the operation of the capstan 21 will be diminished and kept substantially constant.

While the invention is herein disclosed as embodied in a specific type of strand handling apparatus, namely, an apparatus for coating a strand with cellulose acetate solution, nevertheless multiple sheaves substantially as described may be usefully applied in a great variety of strand handling operations and apparatus and the invention is not limited to the specicapparatus or operation herein described but is limited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. In an apparatus for treating strands with adhesive liquid materials, a device` for guiding strands during such treatment, .which device comprises as a unitary assembly a shaft, a sleeve rotatably journalled upon the shaft, and a plurality of peripherally grooved mutually independent strand guide sheaves mounted on the sleeve upon mutually` independent bearings of like diameter to be rotatable thereon independently of each other. y l

` 2. In an apparatus for treatingstrands with adhesive liquid materials, a device for guiding strands during such treatment, whichr device comprises as a unitary assembly a shaft, a sleeve rotatably journalled on the shaft, an anti-friction bearing interposed between the sleeve and the shaft, a plurality of peripherally grooved mutually independent kstrand guide sheaves mounted on the sleeve to be independently rotatable thereon, and a friction bearing interposed between each sheave and the sleeve, all of the friction bearings being of like diameters and mutually independent.

WALDEMAR C. EVVALDSON; HEINZ KRESS. 

